Twiggy's Trip to Europe

At the end of July Mum, Nanna Cadman and myself hopped in the van and left Cheshire to be part of Team GB at the European Open in France. Mum forgot Poppy and Paddy!  I was an only child for the week so was looking forward to ruling the roost and hogging the bed.

First stop was an overnight at Dartford ready for a short trip to Kent to meet the coach the next morning.  I was quite generous and allowed Mum about 1/3 of the bed.

The coach trip this year was like comparing nipping to Chester with driving to Orkney.  An hour into France versus driving for hours to deepest darkest Germany.  The hotel was lovely with the all important air-con, big bed for me, huge gardens to wander round and some feathery neighbours right outside the window which for some reason Mum wouldn’t let me play with.  Meanie!

The first day was a day to get our bearings, take a trip to the venue, get measured (small – like it was ever going to be any different!) and have a play over some equipment.  In Europe the jumps are slightly narrower with wings that aren’t so colourful and therefore easier to run into, lower dog walk so I run faster than Mum is used to, chain tyre which falls apart if you hit it and non slip tunnels which confused me as the whole bottom half of the tunnel is black.  Mum says I should go to Specsavers.  Not my fault I couldn’t tell where the black stops and the tunnel started!

Team day was the first day of competition.  At the EOs small and mediums run in a combined team at the appropriate height for the dog.  We were told we were running Team 10 and all teams would run consecutively with the jump heights moving up and down as appropriate for the height of the dog.  Helpfully this changed as Mum was walking the agility course but nobody knew how many small dogs were in the 9 teams before us (could be anything between 0 and 4 dogs per team).  Not exactly the easiest way to plan a warm up!  Consequently we were ringside far too early and were drenched by the time we got to play.  Not a dreadful run; we picked up 10 faults – Mum ballsed up once for 5R and I missed the dog walk.  1-1!!

 Jumping in the afternoon and I have to confess I was bad!  Mum was definitely indicating the weaves, both verbally and physically, but the tunnel was too tempting!  I was not in good books…  We made use of the facilities and went on a little walk to unwind.  It didn’t really produce the desired effect as I may have found something delightfully stinky to roll in.  Whatever it was it was suitably vile and Mum was horrified, especially as we were somewhat limited on facilities to clean up at the venue.  She got her own back when we got back to the hotel and plonked me very unceremoniously in the massive bath and blasted me within an inch of my life with the shower.  To be honest I don’t think I would ever have been allowed near her bed if she hadn’t so maybe it wasn’t a bad idea?

Individual jumping started the next morning off with yet another last minute change to the running orders.  The original plan was for the smalls to be split into 4 rotations with me running 19^th in the 2^nd rotation.  For reasons nobody understood we found out part way through the first rotation course walking that everything had changed and I was in fact running 3^rd.  In the first rotation.  Eek!!  You really expect that an event of such importance to be well run and both mentally and physically competitors and their dogs need every detail scrutinised so they are at the peak of their performance.  We will never know if the outcome would have been different if we had been afforded that luxury.  Suffice to say we had a big fat E as Mum was just in the wrong place constantly on the course.

By the afternoon we knew what was happening and the organisation didn’t change.  We were clear, coming 34^th out of 200 ish dogs, with over half of the entry being eliminated.  Mum was very happy and felt that finally we had put in a run which was much more like our normal standard.  We didn’t quite make it to the finals; just missing out.

Whilst the organisation left a lot to be desired, the standard of agility was AWESOME.  Team GB had some cracking results and we are up there with the best in the World.  The courses are a very different ‘flavour’ to those we typically see in the UK.  Not a box or pin wheel in sight.  Clever discrimination, flowing lines that allow a dog to stretch and contrary to popular belief not everything is ‘round the back’.  It’s fun to run!! 

I met lots of new friends, allowed Mum a bit of the bed and generally was the centre of attention all the time so I really enjoyed it.

Something strange happened on the way home though – Mum picked up another dog!  I’m not sure how long she’s here for but it’s looking permanent…. but that’s another story…

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Another Big Adventure, by Twiggy Cadman, aged 5 ¾

It’s turning out to be quite a year!  Mum and I have just come back from an amazing trip to Rieden in Germany.  It wasn’t just any old holiday, no – we were representing Great Britain at the European Open.  A huge honour indeed.

It all started just under 12 months ago when I won my Champ ticket and could submit points for the squad selection process.  We squeaked into the squad with just enough points and attended two selection/training days at the beginning of the year in Nottingham.  In April Mum lost the plot and forgot the caravan when we went to Lincoln for a 2 day show where the squad was going to be selected.  She made us stay in a tent and it was freezing!  I snuggled up to Mum to keep warm and it must have worked because I ran really well over the weekend resulting in a phone call a couple of weeks later which made Mum very happy.  We were Germany bound!

 Fast forward to July and Mum started packing.  Stuff everywhere!  Nanna Cadman was coming with us and we set off with her car loaded to the brim on the afternoon of Monday 20^th for an overnight stop near Dartford Crossing ready for the early meet on Tuesday.  Tuesday morning dawned and Mum was like a kid at Christmas and Nanna was a bit starstruck when she met some dude called Pudsey who was also on the team with me.  The first big test was trying to fit everything in the coach!  Not sure how we managed it but put it this way the lockers were not to be opened until we arrived at the hotel!  We made it through a tunnel just before it shut due to some problems at the French end.  There must be some big moles near Dover to make such a big tunnel?  

It took us all day to reach the hotel, we stopped every couple of hours eventually arriving just after midnight.  It was incredibly hot and Mum had the audacity to nick my cool pad out of my crate and sleep on it.  Admittedly I was sharing her bed so may have taken the liberty of stretching out…

 The plan of action for the first day was to acclimatise (i.e. do as little as possible as it was so hot).  We visited the venue – very impressive and HUGE!!   We had a little training session to loosen up after the long coach ride and just chilled as much as possible in the 40° heat.  A brief thunderstorm lightened the atmosphere a bit but only to a mere 34 ish.  Thursday saw the official training session – another chance to get used to the narrower jumps and sandy arena.  Mum said I was better than the day before and couldn’t wait to get going for real.  The Opening Ceremony was a great opportunity to meet lots of other dogs, some of whom barked in funny languages!  There were over 30 countries represented with just short of 1,500 dogs in attendance.

Friday was Team Day.  An early start saw us arrive at the venue for 0730.  I could just go back to bed but Mum had to go off and walk courses.  Agility was first; it was a long course designed to test various skills at speed.  Mum was going to have to do a lot of running!  She was incredibly proud of me when we went clear!!  Our first international clear also happened to be the first clear for team GB for the weekend.  Our team of 4 ended on 2 clears and 2 eliminations after the agility round.  Eliminations sounds pretty bad but if the truth be known they were amazing fast runs with one tiny error.  Such a shame but eliminations to be proud of.  Our next run (jumping) wasn’t until nearly 6pm.  Mum gave me some Kronch but I was flagging a bit.  I still pulled a clear round out of the bag though!  Mum did her best to scupper my attempts by kicking a jump over.  Fortunately we had already negotiated that jump and it didn't affect my run so the clear stood.  Two clears!

We didn't qualify for the team final but it transpired my agility run was my best run of the weekend – small and medium results were combined although we ran at our own height.  I came 61^st out of 385.  How good is that?

 Saturday saw the individual runs.  I may have been a little inattentive on the start line and kind of forgot to move!  Mum nearly had heart failure but after a fishwife impersonation to wake me up I did get going.  Not the fastest run (0.93 of a time fault) but other than that we were clear.  If I had actually run from the start we’d have been inside the time!  In the agility we were doing a lovely run until Mum shouted close but forgot to mention the small matter of doing the seesaw so we got a 5 for a refusal.  I got my own back though and missed the dog walk.  Ha! 

We didn’t make any finals but watching them on Sunday was totally awe inspiring and we got to cheer on some amazing partnerships, including 5 from Team GB.  One word.  Wow!!

Such a huge honour to be part of such a prestigious event.  Not bad for a Brown Rat!  It wasn't easy in the heat and Mum says that she needs to make sure in future that she feeds me something throughout the day to give me energy.  Sounds good to me!

All that was left was the long trip home.  I have to confess I rather like the only dog thing.  I'm not a huge fan of cuddles but it is nice to be able to snuggle up with Mum when I fancy.  Mum still insists on smothering me with kisses and telling me I'm amazing.  I think she may have lost the plot, although the new bed that has appeared for me is very comfy and I won’t complain.

It was good to see the rest of the gang when I got home (although I won’t tell them that).  Aunty Deb had some biscuits ready for me too!  I need to thank her, if she hadn’t stayed at home again to look after everyone else we wouldn’t have been able to go.  I bought her some chocolates to say thank you.

Fame hasn’t gone to my head.  Mum won’t let it.  She still tells me off when I try and drag Bert round the kitchen by his tail.  Meanie!